New York Philharmonic? Not to Worry, Says Caramoor

By ROBERTA HERSHENSON

Published: June 4, 1995

KATONAH—
WHEN the news broke that the New York Philharmonic might make its summer home in the fields of Purchase College, the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts here was preparing to celebrate its own milestone: 50 years of summer music making in the county.

Howard Herring, Caramoor's executive director, said he did not fear the competition the Philharmonic might pose. To the contrary, he said: "Their presence would define us even more vividly as an intimate music festival that relies only on the acoustic properties of its theaters and is on a human scale." He added: "If they choose to come to Westchester, we would welcome them to the region."

The Caramoor Music Festival, which runs from June 24 through Aug. 13 this year, has long shared artists like Yo-Yo Ma, Kathleen Battle and Andre Watts with other major festivals and has gained new vitality under the artistic leadership of Andre Previn, who is also a frequent guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Yet even a short visit to the former Walter and Lucie Rosen estate conveys Caramoor's distinctive tone.

The main house, which displays the late Mr. and Mrs. Rosen's collections of paintings, sculpture, ceramics, textiles and furniture dating from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, was opened to the public as a museum in 1970. The estate's 100-acre grounds have been rejuvenated in recent years by the mostly volunteer Garden Guild, under the direction of its administrator, Candida Fitts, and the staff horticulturalist, Eileen Burton. Their efforts can be seen at every turn, in the greenhouse where plantings are cultivated and in colorful beds designed to attract butterflies and yield flowers all summer long.

The Mediterranean-style Garden Guild Courtyard will be open for the first time this year with patio tables, new paving stones and a array of plants for sale. Nurtured by a staff that has felt the sting of cutbacks to the arts, sites like the Sunken Garden and the Italian Pavilion have become popular with concertgoers, who stroll among the begonias at intermission and gaze beyond the lilies at the stars.

The intimacy Mr. Herring spoke of was not hyperbole, despite the seating capacity of 1,650 in the tented Venetian Theater, which surpasses by 300 the largest theater at Purchase College. Mr. Herring runs a tight ship, not permitting picnickers to remain on their blankets once a concert has begun and staging one performance at a time. The festival might prefer to present a chamber music concert in the Spanish Courtyard, which is enclosed by the main house, at the same time as an orchestra is playing in the Venetian Theater, but the acoustics won't allow it. "The sound travels, and you can hear the music in the other theater," the director said.

The Rosens presented concerts for their friends in the Music Room of the house, and in 1946 began to give a limited number of concerts for the public. After Mr. Rosen, a lawyer and financier, died in 1951, his wife remained at Caramoor, taking the music outside to the Spanish Courtyard and initiating construction of the larger Venetian Theater in 1957. When she died in 1968, the couple's daughter, Anne Bigelow Stern, continued the festival and introduced the Orchestra of St. Luke's to Caramoor. The ensemble will begin its 16th season in residence here this summer.

Mr. Previn, a formidable musician whom Mr. Herring described as "a runaway train" of energy and ideas, became part of the scene after moving to nearby Bedford Hills six years ago. Mr. Previn, a conductor, composer and pianist who displays all three facets at Caramoor, heightened the presence of jazz here and began a program called Rising Stars, which provides a chance for emerging talents to work with accomplished classical artists and perform chamber music with them here after 10 days of intensive coaching.

Rising Stars heralded Caramoor's expansion into a year-round arts center with spring and fall concerts, an opera series, book readings and educational events like Renaissance Days, which immerse sixth graders from disadvantaged areas in Renaissance culture at no expense to the students or the schools. One recent morning strolling musicians, jesters and a falconer captivated a group of youngsters from the Bronx.

Mr. Herring said he hoped to replicate Renaissance Days as an arts and education program linked to social studies curriculums nationwide, and as a first step has arranged for the Harvard University Graduate School of Education to evaluate the program.

But even as Caramoor has expanded, raising its budget to $1.9 million today from $1.3 million when Mr. Herring arrived in 1986 and increasing its number of visitors to 60,000 a year from 20,000 during the same period, the center has also faced cutbacks. "With the recession, we tightened our focus," Mr. Herring said. "At a 1993 board retreat we reached a watershed. We said that making music at the highest possible level is what this institution is about -- in the context of the gardens and the house.